EDUCATION: 'Flipped classrooms' turning education on its head

The tradition of listening to classroom lectures and doing homework alone is being turned on its head in several local classrooms this year, as teachers introduce a new concept some are calling revolutionary.

"It's not only helping my kids with their homework, it's giving me more time in the classroom to work with the kids," said teacher Jo-Ann Fox of Escondido's
Reidy Creek School
last week. She's using a "flipped classroom" this semester to teach math.

The concept is simple. Rather than listening to lectures in class, students listen to recorded talks at home. They then do their homework in their classrooms, where a teacher can help with problems they don't understand.

Advocates of flipped classrooms say students can absorb their lessons better because they can pause and replay the lectures if they don't understand them immediately, allowing for better in-class discussions later.

At
Woodland Park Middle School
in San Marcos, Katrin Marti said her students seem more engaged in their lessons since she's adopted a flipped classroom.

"I have to say their questions are a little more thoughtful and in-depth," she said about students in her two flipped classrooms. She teaches four other classes in a traditional method.

"More students are asking questions," she said about her flipped classrooms. "In the other classes, maybe five students will ask questions. In the flipped classes, maybe 75 percent will. They seemed more involved in the subject."

Reidy Creek teacher Chia Grossmann said she met the authors at the ISTE conference and attended workshops on flipped classrooms, which she first heard about more than a year ago.

"It's not just about the videos," she said. "It's about putting the learning upon the student. It's about what is the most effective use of my time."

In the
Escondido Union High School District
, director of educational technology Damon Blackman said 17 teachers are studying Bergmann and Sams' book with a plan to begin introducing flipped classrooms by the end of this semester.

"The important part for the flipped classroom is not 'Watch the video ahead of time and do the homework in class,'" he said. "That's not what flipped classroom is about. It's about more in-depth investigations and activities and hands-on things."

Fox said the
lectures she uploads
are no more than 12 minutes long, considerably shorter than the time it would take to deliver them in class before students.

That means she has more time to interact with students, which Blackman said is one of the greatest advantages of the flipped classrooms.

"It's taking the 20 minutes a day that might be used for instruction and pulling that out for more free times and hands-on activities," he said.

Blackman said another advantage to the concept is that teachers can immediately identify students who are having trouble grasping a concept and work one-on-one with them.

Meanwhile, students who are caught up can start working ahead without waiting for the rest of the class, he said.

Criticism

The most frequently heard criticism of the flipped classroom may be about accessibility.

"If you're doing a flipped classroom and you're providing this digital information, you want to make sure all students have access to this information," said Kathy Hayden, director of the school of education at
Cal State San Marcos.

Blackman and other advocates of flipped classrooms say the digital lectures can be accessed in a variety of ways, including on discs, MP3 players or on computers in libraries for students without Internet access.

Grossmann said only one of her students does not have Internet access at home, but he is able to watch the digital math lessons in class. She also has begun recording her lectures on DVDs and CDs. Blackman said the 17 high school teachers, who represent each site in the district, are creating videos now to use in future semesters. He also encourages teachers who are not comfortable with technology to use prerecorded lectures that can be found on the
TED-ED website
, http://ed.ted.com.

Ideally, however, Blackman said it is best if students hear their teacher's voice in the recorded lectures.

Flipped classrooms also allow parents to see what their children are learning at school, which may help with tutoring at home.

Grossmann said her own daughter is in a flipped classroom this year.

"It's been great to watch as a mom," she said Wednesday. "We were driving home last night and she watched the video on an iPhone."

She also said the flipped classroom has helped her daughter's confidence because she can re-watch lectures without feeling she is the only one in class who doesn't get something.

"She's good in math, but it's not something she's always loved doing," she said. "I think math in a classroom can be hard if it doesn't make sense to you. This way she's able to learn and she's engaged, and it builds her confidence when she says, 'I knew that!'"

Hayden said another advantage to the flipped classroom is that students who make mistakes in homework they do alone may take longer to learn the correct answers.

"Research shows that some students who practice something wrong get it embedded in their brain, then it's harder to unlearn," she said, explaining that teachers in flipped classrooms are able to immediately point out mistakes before they are repeated.